The present invention is directed to an apparatus and method for removing chemical contaminants, such as petroleum hydrocarbon, from soil, as a means for the environmental clean up of a dump site, landfill, or spill site.
Environmental laws require that remedial measures be taken in dump sites, landfills, or following chemical spills, leakages, or other accidents. The goal of these regulations is to prevent chemicals from contaminating ground water due to percolation of contaminates through the soil. These chemical contaminants can include hazardous and non-hazardous materials such as crude oil, hydraulics, mercury, glycol and creosote, as well as gasoline and other volatile organic compounds. The remedial measures may involve removing such compounds from the soil by volatilization. Such volatilization can readily be accomplished by heating the soil in a furnace. However, this method requires that the soil be transported to a suitable processing facility for treatment. For all but very small clean ups, this method is prohibitively expensive in view of the high transportation costs required.
Transportable methods and apparatus exist which thermally remove chemical contaminates from the soil. The problem with these units is that once the chemical contaminates are volatilized they are vented to the atmosphere, sacrificing air quality to improve soil quality.